Article Tools

If he’s going to greener pastures, Saquon Barkley is bringing along every piece of Big Ten hardware he possibly could have won.

Penn State’s junior running back completed a brilliant 2017 season — and perhaps his Nittany Lions career — by claiming three individual awards from the conference Thursday morning. The Big Ten named him the winner of its George-Graham Offensive Player of the Year, its Amaeche-Dayne Running Back of the Year and Rogers-Dwight Return Specialist of the Year awards, a clean sweep of honors for a player who amassed 2,154 total yards and 21 touchdowns this season.

It marked the second straight season in which Barkley earned the Offensive Player of the Year and Running Back of the Year awards.

Barkley earned consensus first-team honors from the coaches and media at both running back and return specialist earlier this week, and his run to three awards Thursday made some history.

He becomes just the second player in conference history to win three major individual awards in the same year, joining Michigan’s Jabrill Peppers in 2016. He is the only Big Ten running back to win the Offensive Player of the Year award twice, and only two other players — Ohio State quarterback/receiver Braxton Miller in 2012 and 2013, and Purdue quarterback Drew Brees in 1998 and 2000 — have won it as often.

He’s also the first player to win the Running Back of the Year honor in back-to-back years since Wisconsin’s Montee Ball did it in 2011 and 2012.

Heading into Penn State’s bowl game, Barkley owns program records for career touchdowns, all-purpose yards, points scored by a non-kicker, rushing yards in a player’s first three seasons and receiving yards by a running back.

Barkley rushed for 1,134 yards on 199 carries this season, scoring 16 touchdowns. But, he also made a big mark as a receiver, setting Penn State running back records with 47 catches for 594 yards and three scores, in addition to his program record-tying two kickoff returns for scores in 2017.

Huff leaving?

New Mississippi State head coach Joe Moorhead provided some good news for Penn State on Thursday during his introductory press conference in Starksville: He vows not to try to lure recruits who have committed to the Nittany Lions’ 2018 class to join him.

But, there evidently is some bad news for the Nittany Lions, too: He’s taking at least one assistant coach with him.

According to a report by The Athletic, Penn State special teams coordinator and running backs coach Charles Huff will be joining Moorhead’s Bulldogs staff. Citing an unnamed source, the website indicated Huff will become Moorhead’s assistant head coach, co-offensive coordinator and running backs coach.

Huff came to Penn State with head coach James Franklin from Vanderbilt in January 2014 and had a significant impact on the program in both roles in which he served. As the running backs coach, he helped develop Barkley from talented freshman to one of the most accomplished running backs in Penn State history.

But Huff had just as big an impact on special teams units that went from among the nation’s worst before his arrival to a group Franklin called “elite” throughout the 2017 campaign. Huff helped turn punter Blake Gillikin into one of the most consistent punters in the conference, and he guided former walk-on Tyler Davis from high school soccer star to the national placekicker of the year in 2016. For the first time in nearly a decade, Penn State had kick and punt returns for touchdowns in 2017, and opponents averaged just 19.3 yards per kickoff return and a mere 4.3 per punt return against the Nittany Lions’ coverage teams.

If Huff winds up leaving, it will be the start of a busy offseason filling out the coaching staff for Franklin. Not only will he need to find replacements at least for Moorhead and Huff, FBS teams will be allowed to add a 10th full-time member to coaching staffs starting

Jan. 9. So, there will be no fewer than three new coaches on Penn State’s staff heading into the 2018 campaign.

Contact the writer:

dcollins@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100, x5368

@psubst on Twitter

We welcome user discussion on our site, under the following guidelines:

To comment you must first create a profile and sign-in with a verified DISQUS account or social network ID. Sign up here.

Comments in violation of the rules will be denied, and repeat violators will be banned. Please help police the community by flagging offensive comments for our moderators to review. By posting a comment, you agree to our full terms and conditions. Click here to read terms and conditions.